1. In religious fellowship. The apostle had occasion to warn the Corinthians against fellowship with idolaters. We may he attracted by a religious community in which the truth is not found or in which it is greatly obscured or distorted.
2. In marriage. With believers the religious question should be a prime question. Alas! it is often no question at all. Religious inequality is most frequently esteemed as the dust of the balance, and less than that. Consent is asked of the earthly father, but the heavenly Father is too commonly forgotten altogether. Marriages too often are not made in heaven, and that is why they have so little heaven about them, The ill-assorted union does not lead so much to Paradise as to misery and the divorce court.
3. In friendships. There is often much unequal yoking here. A wise man chooses his friends with care, but a fool takes them haphazard or on mere "liking." The power of a friendship is great, for good or for evil. Believers should choose friends who will help, not hinder, and friends who wilt be friends forever, and not severed at the grave.
4. In business. Partnership in commerce is a yoke which brings men very close together. They must have very much in common; their lives must run in very much the same channel; their actions must largely agree. Or, if not, their union will be disunion, and the issue, quarrels first, and perhaps bankruptcy or worse next. How often a child of God has lived to rue the day when he entered into partnership with a child of the devil!
II. WHY THIS SHOULD NOT BE DONE.
1. Unreasonable in itself. Consider what believers and unbelievers are.
2. Extremely perilous. How many have found this! In marriage, for example. What misery, loss of peace, loss of holiness, loss of everything most prized once, have followed upon an unequal alliance! The life has been utterly ruined and lost. Some marry in order to convert; but we should always convert people before we marry them. The peril applies to all cases of unequal yoking. The evil generally triumphs because the good has robbed itself of power by taking a false step.
3. Expressly forbidden by God. The Divine Word is emphatic: "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing" (Deuteronomy 22:17). This is a Divine command which we dare not set aside. This is Divine wisdom; our wisdom may not accord with it, but if so, our wisdom is assuredly folly. This is Divine love, purposing to save us from misery and loss.
4. A most gracious promise for the obedient. The resolve not to be unequally yoked may sometimes seem to entail large sacrifice. If we lose something, this is what we gain. God says:
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
2 Corinthians 6:2 - "Now."
Before Christ came, religious privileges were with Israel. The Gentiles walked in darkness through "times of ignorance." But with Christ came tidings of great joy to all people. And when the Holy Spirit fell on Gentiles as well as on Jews who heard the gospel, it was evident that a new age had come. This is the "acceptable year of the Lord," and is the dispensation of grace intended to continue till the second coming of Christ. It is the world's great opportunity. So it is on the large scale; but when we take groups of men and individuals, the scale of time is proportionally reduced. Nations miss opportunities which may never return. Congregations have a bright season, a time of visitation, which may come to a lamentable end. The Lord may withdraw his favour; may even fight against an unfaithful Church with the sword of his mouth. Shorter still is the day of salvation for the individual.
1. THE VALUE OF OPPORTUNITY. In affairs of this life it is fully recognized. It is the dictate of worldly wisdom to wait for and to seize the fit occasion. Does a speculator watch for a rising market? or a capitalist look out for a good investment, or a politician aspire to office? Such men keenly watch their opportunities and must not let them slip.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries;
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures."
All this is quite as true of spiritual advantage. There is an opportunity to be seized, a tide to be taken at the flood. There is a day which must become the birthday of the soul, the peace day of the conscience, or loss will be suffered—eternal loss. There is an emergency on which all the future secretly depends, and which, if one let slip, he may wring his hands and curse his folly, but will never find a remedy.
II. INDICATIONS OF OPPORTUNITY. The favourable day for spiritual life is not so easily recognized as that of worldly advantage. In external aspect it is as other days. A preacher may speak to you whom you have often heard and not heeded. The view of truth which is to carry you captive may be one which has often been pressed on you to little purpose. But somehow you are moved; you catch the urgency of now; and you listen and believe as you never listened or believed before. So that common day becomes a beginning of days and a spiritual epoch to you. There are, however, indications or hints of a critical time which watchful spirits may perceive. Often it is preceded by sickness, sorrow, or disappointment, making one more thoughtful and more wistful about the things unseen. Or there springs up, one hardly knows how, a sense of inward weariness and want. Conscience is uneasy, and the heart cannot rest. Then some word in season falls on the ear, or looks out of a book or a friend's letter. These things indicate opportunity. Miss it not. Embrace the gospel at once. Receive not the grace of God in vain.
III. PENALTY OF MISSING OPPORTUNITY. The wasted day can never be recalled. Lost property may be recovered; lost friendships regained; but the lost year never comes back. It was a sign of wisdom in the young Roman emperor that he grieved when a day had been wasted. Perdidi diem! But such tasks as he had in hand might still be accomplished by redoubled diligence on the morrow. Not so with him who wastes the day of salvation, Perdidi vitam! The day of grace neglected is followed by the night of doom.
IV. THE APPEAL FOR IMMEDIATE COMPLIANCE WITH THE GOSPEL.
1. Let gratitude move you. The God of grace calls you to him; not exacting his rights and dues from you as his creature and his subject, but with open hands extending pardon and countless benefits for time and eternity, freely. "Now then," exclaimed an old English preacher, "what is more suitable to ingenuous gratitude than to embrace the season of God's bestowing so free a favour? Surely the least we can do is to accept of that God that accepteth of us; of him who is fall of beauty and rewards, while we have nothing to bring to him but deformity and beggary."
2. Let a proper self-regard move you. Why should you lose your own soul? Why will ye die? It is more pleasant for the preacher to speak as from the gate of heaven; but it is necessary to cry aloud sometimes as from the mouth of hell. Turn ye! Get you back! Seek the Lord, and do it now!—F.
2 Corinthians 6:10 - Sorrow and joy.
The apostle's experience is in some degree known to many Christians. The apparent paradox of simultaneous grief and joy is to them a fact of sober consciousness.
I. SORROWFUL. Not querulous, but bruised and sad. The course of the world rushes past us, and we sit down with our pain or grief. We are chastened. And not without reason.
1. We must take our share of the troubles common to mankind. Spiritual life carries with it no exemption from the usual cares and losses of the present state. To bring about such exemption would require a multiplication of miracles without any sufficient reason. If famine come upon a land, or war, or pestilence; if a railway train or a passenger steamship be wrecked,—there can be no discrimination between the good and the bad in the common catastrophe. Indeed, it is questionable whether a special immunity from pain and grief accorded to spiritual men might not do serious harm to religion, by giving strong temporal inducements to worldly men to cover themselves over with a thin coating of godliness. And there are sorrows which no personal qualities can ward off. Some troubles are inherited; others come from the mishap or misconduct of a relative or of a partner in business. And the sickness and death of those who are dear to us must bring us grief. Man is born to trouble.
2. We find in the discipline of sorrow some of the best lessons and impulses of the Christian life
"Night brings out stars;
So sorrow shows us truths."
And conformity to Christ is gained in suffering with him, working out a deeper patience and keener moral sensibility.
II. YET ALWAYS REJOICING. The Man of sorrows had joy in his Father's love; though it is his affliction that is made prominent in the account of his state of humiliation. There was also a joy set before him, and in this he now sits at the right hand of God. As his followers, we too have joy now amidst sorrow, and fulness of joy set before us. Always. Not sorrowing always, but always rejoicing. It cannot mean any ecstatic emotion, for that cannot be habitual; the excessive strain would break the springs of feeling. But we may be always glad and satisfied and triumphant in our Lord. Not only is this possible to the sorrowful; it seems to be fullest and strongest in them. Remember Paul and Silas singing in the dark dungeon with their stripes unwashed. Samuel Rutherford in prison at Aberdeen, and Madame Guyon in prison at Vincennes, tasted the same gladness. The latter said, "My heart was full of that joy which thou givest to them that love thee in the midst of the greatest crosses." This can be understood only by those who have some real acquaintance of heart with the Lord Jesus, and know what treasures his people have in him—unsearchable riches, unerring wisdom, precious atonement, prevailing intercession, helpful sympathy, victorious strength, and everlasting love. Genius often shows the combination of a pensive vein, a tenderness, a pathos, with a healthy elastic hopefulness, nay, with a joyfulness robust as in a man, yet simple and playful as in a child. But we speak of what is better than even genius—the grace of God. This can make even very ordinary people both gentle and brave, tender and strong, patient in sorrow, and constant in joy. "The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."—F.
2 Corinthians 6:13 - "Be ye enlarged."
The apostle had specially in view the increase of joy. But we may use the exhortation to commend the enlargement of Christian people as respects head and heart and hand.
I. BE ENLARGED IN YOUR THOUGHTS. No doubt there is a dangerous breadth or laxity; but there is also mischief in the opposite direction, in narrowness. Good people are apt to become the slaves of their own phraseology, and to insist on their own traditions of expression and definition as exclusively safe and orthodox. Christian truth appears to be with them quite a narrow ledge of stone shaped to their liking, whereas it is a broad firm rock that does not submit itself to men's measuring lines. Never follow a narrow-minded religious teacher. He is sure to be opinionative and monotonous. And even when he lodges a truth in the mind, he gives it the effect of a prejudice. Be enlarged in the comprehensive and manifold wisdom of the Bible. Dare to give yourself room in the far-reaching thoughts and words of God. Especially seek to be enlarged in your estimate of Jesus Christ. Only by degrees was any sufficient knowledge of him attained by those who "companied with him" on earth. They loved him from the first and often wondered. They tried by questions to peer into his mind, but could not make him out. They were surprisingly slow in their apprehensions, till he opened the Scriptures to them after his resurrection, and the Holy Spirit fell on them after his ascension. And now, though the Holy Spirit is with us, his teaching is not received all at once by disciples, and they need more and more enlargement. It is the mark of a growing Christian that in his view Christ increases; the mark of a great Christian that to him Christ is very great. Augustine, Bernard, Leighton, Rutherford, Owen, Martyn,—were these great Christians? And what had they in common? Large and admiring thoughts of Christ.
II. BE ENLARGED IN YOUR SYMPATHIES. Narrow hearts are even more mischievous and unchristian than narrow heads. It is confessedly difficult for one who may have received little mental culture, or has been early imbued with strong prejudices, to gain breadth of view; but there is no excuse for any one who, while naming the name of Jesus, and professing to know the love of God, retains a peevish and contracted heart. We have said "professes to know the love of God," because, when this love is really "shed abroad by the Holy Spirit," it must tend to expand the affections and sympathies. Argument will not do it. Admonition cannot produce the effect. Love only kindles love, and so imparts a larger kindness and more delicate sensibility. Love cries shame on harshness and envy, spreads brotherly kindness, disposes to forgiveness of wrong and a kindly construction of motives, covers a multitude of sins. Have sympathy with all good objects, though you cannot actually help all. Take the part of right-hearted men. A great Christian is one to whom the Lord has given "largeness" of heart. Paul, Chrysostom, Bengel, Baxter, Whitefield, Chalmers,—were these great Christians? And what had they in common? Great hearts, large generosity of soul, the capacity of loving much, and of enlisting the love and sympathy of others for worthy objects.
"The truly generous is the truly wise,
And he who loves not others lives unblest."
III. BE ENLARGED IN LABOURS AND GIFTS. A grudging hand and indolent temper in the Church go with a narrow spirit; but where mind and heart are enlarged in Christ, the hands will be found ready to every good enterprise and open in giving up to the measure of ability.—F.
2 Corinthians 6:14.-18 - Separation.
St. Paul wished to see the Corinthian brethren enlarged, enlivened, and encouraged. But this was not to be by the easy and uuprincipled method of ignoring all distinctions and binding together incongruous materials and moral opposites. The exhortation, "Be ye enlarged," must be taken with this, "Be ye separate;" and charity must go hand in hand with purity. The contrasts expressed in this passage were very apparent in ancient Corinth, where the Christians, as saints, were openly separated from the heathen worship and heathen vices around them. A similar state of things may be seen now at mission stations in populous heathen cities. The Christians turn away from the temples, disown the priests and soothsayers, disregard the festivals, and have nothing any more to do with idols, They may still maintain family and social intercourse with the heathen, because conversion, as St. Paul explains, does not break family ties, or change the station in which one is when "called," or drive Christ's followers "out of the world." But they may not be unequally yoked with non-Christians or profane persons in Church fellowship. The distinction cannot be made so palpable where all society has accepted the Christian name as when and where the Church is in sharp contrast with a powerful heathenism. Yet in principle the distinction insisted on by St. Paul must be maintained, else the strength of the Church as a spiritual institution is sapped, and a compromising spirit enters which destroys the glory of Christ. To carry out the principle in actual Church discipline is confessedly difficult; but the Church has a right to expect that her overseers will prevent the admission of scandalous persons; and individual professors of the Christian faith should not claim Church fellowship without examining themselves as to the side on which they stand with reference to the five points of contrast indicated in this text.
1. Between righteousness and iniquity. This takes us at once into the region of conscience and moral conduct. The Christian should be a righteous man. He may not lie, or cheat, or overreach, or take unfair advantage of another, because to do so would not be right or righteous. The rogue and the worker of iniquity are as heathen men, and not fit for Christian fellowship.
2. Between light and darkness. This points to the mental and moral environment as affecting thought, feeling, and action. It is a mode of expression common with St. Paul, as may be seen in other Epistles. The Christian is a child of the light and of the day. Darkness, on the contrary, is the covering of the heathen world; and its works are unfruitful and shameful.
3. Between Christ and Belial. Abstractions are left, and the leaders of two conflicting hosts are set in opposition. A Christian is "of Christ," as the Lord whom he obeys and the pattern which he follows. On the other side is a man of Belial, or the follower of a worthless and profligate spirit. So this contrast has reference to disposition, and excludes every false and wicked person from Christian fellowship.
4. Between the believer and the unbeliever. This takes us to the question of religious persuasion and conviction. A Christian is a believer on the Son of God. In this lies the secret of his life, strength, holiness, and patience. A man without faith is no more fit for fellowship in the Church than a heathen. To him the trials and triumphs of the life of faith are alike unknown.
5. Between the temple of God and idols. The Church is the living temple of the living God, the holy temple of the holy God. The individual Christians are stones in that temple, and must be in harmony with its sacred character and use. What agreement has it with idols? If the Jew would have thought it a horrible profanation to set up a graven image in the temple at Jerusalem, much more should Christian minds abhor the setting up of idols of selfishness, covetousness, or sensuality in that better temple which is now the habitation of God in the Spirit. So much of incompatibilities and contrasts. Then the apostle, who did not address himself to the heathen, bidding them stand off, but wrote to the Christians, urging them to avoid entanglement with the heathen, gave them a charge from the Lord, and enforced it by a gracious promise.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
2 Corinthians 6:2 - "The accepted time."
This text immediately follows upon the full declaration of the truth in Jesus, the free offers of Divine mercy, and the earnest pleadings of 2 Corinthians 5:1-21. St. Paul understood well that there was this sad and strange tendency in men—they are ever disposed to shift into the future the most serious duties of life. In the time of disease they will not send for the doctor until they absolutely must. They put off making their wills until the very power to make them is gone. How is the tendency to be explained? It is one of the forms in which man's hopefulness expresses itself, The future always seems to be richer and better than the present; though, when that future is reached, it very seldom realizes our hope. It is, however, a mischievous form of hopefulness if it lifts us off from the performance of present duty. Then it becomes procrastination, "the thief of time."
I. THE INCOMPARABLE ADVANTAGES OF TIME PRESENT. The "now" By this term is properly meant that moment in which any duty stands right before us. Observe:
1. Its security. We have it; it is here; it is ours. The only thing in all the world that is or ever can be ours. The only sphere for the activity of our will. We "act in the living present." Nothing really belongs to us except that which we have at this moment. The past is gone. The future may never come. When we put off duty to the future, we deal with something that is not our own. We have no future until God gives it to us and makes it present. We have only the now, and on it may hang eternity.
2. Its peculiar suitability for action. Because the whole nature is aroused, awakened, interested, prepared, and action can be taken so easily and so heartily, now. You can never again be sure of the same interest, and, if neglected duties do ever get done, they must push into the place of some other duty, and push it aside. Now we have the assistance of all aiding impulses. We are helped by an awakened conscience, by deep emotions, and by the urgings of the Divine Spirit. Now is the time of our opportunity. Illustrate by the boats waiting for a wave to help them ashore. How the men watch, and at last say, "Now, now!" as they bend to the ear! The times when the claims of Christ come home to us are just such times; then why not now be flooded over all hindrances and difficulties unto the harbour of salvation?
II. THE SERIOUS PERIL INVOLVED IN THE NEGLECT OF TIME PRESENT. Notice:
1. The insecurity of the return of such another opportunity. Others we may have, but this precise one will never come again. There is only one round of seasons in each life. Spring time never comes but once, with its encouraging assurance, "They that seek me early shall find me. Summer time and autumn time come but once, and by and by we may have to wail and to say, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
2. The burdening of life with the sense of unfulfilled duty. That may indeed be made an impulse to higher activity, but usually it presses as a hopeless hindrance.
3. The injury done to our moral nature by resisted spiritual influences. There is a disease whose special feature is the ossification of the heart, the turning of its flexible walls into hardness and bone. It is the disease which they suffer from—in its spiritual form—who neglect the golden opportunities offered them in the time present. Illustrate by the man on the Royal Charter, who was on the stern half when the vessel broke in two, and had but a moment in which to leap for dear life. Yet how men resist the claims of God to their immediate attention! Some wilfully put off the matter, deliberately finding excuses for delay. Surely no other proof of human depravity is needed than this. Men will hang their immortality on the thread of life, and even dally with the offered mercy of their God. But some honest hearts may be in real difficulty as to the claims of Christ upon them now. They think they are too young, or that they have not been anxious long enough; or they are waiting for a deeper sense of sin, or, it may be, for more faith. But all these are subtle ways in which we show our desire to manage our own salvation. If we were really willing that Christ should save us, we would be quite willing that he should save us now.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 6:3-10 - The holy power of character.
The subject occupying the attention of the apostle is the "ministry of reconciliation;" the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God unto the forgiveness of sins and restoration of man to the Divine favor. This ministry has been entrusted to him. He had, indeed, no "letters of commendation" to rely on, as had some other teachers, but he could appeal to the character of his ministry, to the sufferings he had endured in fulfilling it, and to the Divine benedictions which had rested upon it. He does, in a sense, commend himself; but how? He looks back on his life of labours and sufferings, and challenges comparison. Can others, with their letters of commendation, point to anything like this? Dean Stanley divides the means by which the apostle commended himself into four classes:
I. THE PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL MUST SHOW ITS POWER ON HIS OWN CHARACTER AND LIFE. Illustrate by a man offering an infallible remedy for a skin disease, from which everybody could see he was still suffering. The gospel is life for dead souls, and he who preaches it must be himself "alive unto God." The gospel is healing for sin-sick souls, and he who proclaims it must be able to tell his own experiences of the Balm of Gilead. The gospel provides a regeneration of character, and what it can do for men we expect to see in the men who commend it to us. As a fact, the men who show the power of the gospel in themselves are the men who alone can wield the power of the gospel on others. The preacher must be an ensample of them that believe.
II. AS EXAMPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT, MINISTERS MAY EXPECT UNUSUAL TESTINGS. These come in several ways:
III. THEIR EXPERIENCES WILL GIVE THE TRUE POWER TO THEIR PUBLIC PLEADINGS. Illustrate in the case of the Apostle Paul, who could not have written such letters if he had not passed through such trials. Experience is the secret of power. It gives the tone of tenderness and sympathy to a minister's work. It gives confidence in speaking of the comforting and sustaining power of Divine grace. It is the true power on our fellow men to be enabled to speak to them of "that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." But if all this be, in high degrees, true of the recognized ministry, it is true of all who seek to influence others for God and goodness. The world which we long and strive to save very properly asks of us this most searching question, "What has this gospel done for you?"—R.T.
2 Corinthians 6:12 - Where are men straitened?
The apostle, in an intense outburst of feeling, bad just said, "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged." He was referring to that opening of his ministry, and disclosure of his love for them, which filled the previous part of the chapter. And so he is led to ask from them a worthy response. He would have his love quicken love. He wanted it to break down the barriers and enmities and prejudices which were so sadly limiting the confidence of the Corinthians in St. Paul. So he pleads with them, "Ye are not straitened in us;" there is no limit of our love to you; "but ye are straitened in your own bowels," your own affections, which are sadly kept in bondage by your passions and prejudices and antipathies; by misrepresentations of me and my doings, and the influence of unworthy teachers. Then he urges them to break the bonds, to be enlarged, and to let their hearts express the love they feel. What they needed in their spiritual life was breadth and expansiveness of affection. There is suggested by the apostle's words a series of contrasts between—
I. THE LIMITED IDEAS AND AFFECTIONS OF MEN. Who are straitened by ignorance, imperfect character, prejudice, false sentiments, readiness to misjudge and to impute bad motive, etc.
II. THE BROAD IDEAS AND AFFECTIONS OF APOSTLES. Who see in men souls to be redeemed unto God, and, labouring for men's spiritual and eternal well being, can rise above the smaller occasions of difference and separation.
III. THE SUBLIME IDEAS AND AFFECTIONS OF GOD IN CHRIST. Who would have all men saved; who loved the world; whose love found expression in self-sacrifice; and whose invitations now are sent to whosoever will. No man is straitened in God. "When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." In his heart and home there "yet is room." Men are straitened, limited, in themselves, not in God, not in the gospel, not in Christian teachers. They forge, and fix on, their own bondages.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 6:14 - Christian friendships.
The Bible would not be a complete book, adequately representing all phases of human life and experience and associations, if it contained no instance of close, personal, sacrificing friendship. But we have the very beautiful illustrative case of David and Jonathan. Christianity would not meet us at every point of our need if it had not something to say about the choices the changes, and the claims of friendship.
I. ON THE CHOICES OF FRIENDSHIP. Our friendships are not always gained by choice; they are sometimes determined by outward circumstances; sometimes by felt affinities; and sometimes they are started by some impressive or generous deed. But friendship ought always to be put to the decision of our will, seeing that it bears so directly on our character and on our life. It sounds chilling to the freshness and warmth of our love to say that we must decide who is to be our friend, and put into careful consideration the qualities and habits and probable influence upon us of the person towards whom we are drawn. Yet, surely, as we would not trust our property to a man whom we did not know, or our child to an education that we had not carefully selected for him, so we would not give our hearts to one whom we were not sure that we might fully trust. Moreover, as Christians, we guard against the approach of evil in every form, and nothing will more directly affect our Christian spirit than the influence of an unworthy friend. He may be a scoffer. He may be one whose sneer at all we love and seek may hurt and wound us far more than the scoffer's open speech. He may be an indulgent pleasure-seeker, whose disposition will be sure to nourish the worldliness and self-loving of our spirit. And, on the other hand, few things will help us more than a well-chosen Christian friendship. Many a doubt is scattered by the contact of a friend's faith, and many a sliding step is steadied by the influence of a friend's firmness. Two things lie at the basis of a worthy and lasting friendship, viz. a certain felt sympathy and a certain recognized equality.
II. ON THE CHANGES OF FRIENDSHIP. Sometimes friendships are broken through changeableness of disposition. Others are broken by the wrong doing or unfaithfulness of one of the friends. And at other times friendships are broken by the rude, rough hand of death.
III. ON THE CLAIMS OF FRIENDSHIP. All associations of men together bring claims and responsibilities. If we have the privilege of a loving friendship, it claims from us two things.
1. Unfailing confidence in our friend. And this involves openness one with the other. Close natures, that can keep secrets, seldom know the full joy of friendship.
2. Mutual self-sacrifice, readiness to spend our best for our friend, and to put forth our best efforts in his behalf. Foote well says, "Be thankful if God has given you a sympathizing friend, one who can share with you your deepest griefs, who is one with you in all your interests for time and for eternity, whose heart answers to your heart. This is one of God's best gifts; be thankful for it and use it right, for he may deprive you of it, and leave you grieving,—Would I had prized it more! It is a most sweet and blessed fellowship; use it—use it for the high ends of mutual, spiritual good, and the Divine glory."—R.T.
2 Corinthians 6:17 - Christian relations with the world.
This verse is a partial quotation from Isaiah 52:11, which reads, "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." The first reference of these words is to the captives in Babylon, who were thus counselled to prepare for their return to Canaan, and to see to it that they carried back with them none of the evils of the idolatrous land in which they had so long sojourned. "The local and historical meaning has for the apostle passed away, and the 'unclean thing' is identified with the whole system of heathenism." Since we are counselled to be separate from the world, it will be well for us to understand what is properly meant by "the world." Some have thought that they were called to separate from the world of creation, and compel themselves to find no interest in field, or flower, or song, or the thousandfold charms of nature. Others have thought that "the world" must mean the mass of humanity, and so a true religious life could only be lived in convent or hermit cell. Others, again, think that "the world" must mean the common scenes and pleasures of life, and that we can only live for God by resisting every pleasure and severing ourselves from every form of personal enjoyment. But "the world," in the New Testament sense, is not a thing or a set of things, but a spirit and disposition—it is worldliness. It is none of these things, but it may be in them all. It is all these if we persist in having them without God. This green earth, with its vales and hills, apart from God, is just "the world." But with God, seen as God's, it is no longer "the world;" it is the footstool of the eternal throne, the dwelling place of the Divine majesty, the garment of the all-glorious King. The mass of humanity, without God, is just "the world;" but in the light of God's relation, it is the Father's family, the Father's school. The common cares and pleasures of life are filled with an infinite meaning and importance when they become the testing scenes out of which God purposes to bring his children, "faultless in the presence of his glory." Whether a thing is worldly or not depends simply on this—Can you see God in it? To the Christian man God is in everything, and if he finds anything into which he cannot bring the thought of God, then he calls that worldly and shrinks from it. The "world" is that act, that scene, with which we feel the cherished thought of God does not harmonize. It is heaven where God is; it is earth where he is not: it is hell where he will not come.
I. THE CHRISTIAN MUST BE IN THE WORLD. He cannot, he may not, get free from outward and physical relations. His present sphere of life and duty is earthly; and his Master did not pray that his disciples should be taken "out of the world."
II. THE CHRISTIAN NEED NOT BE OF THE WORLD. In the sense of adopting its principles or its maxims, yielding to its fashions or seeking its ends.
III. THE CHRISTIAN MAY BE ABOVE THE WORLD. In the sense of having a Divine life, which masters worldly principles, resists worldly influences, and even makes him a quickening and healing power on the world, as Christ himself was. This is expressed in plain terms by the apostle, in Romans 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." The separation from the world is not to be effected by any mere watching of our acts and habits. Let us realize the higher transformation in the renewal of our minds, and we shall find it easy to reach a true nonconformity to the world. He who glorifies God in the spirit will be sure to glorify him in the body too. He who is daily more renewed in mind will most readily discover, in practical details, what is the "good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."—R.T.
2 Corinthians 6:18 - Proving sonship by obedience.